Missouri basketball team on the decline in 2015

The toughest basketball ticket in St. Louis — the annual pre-Christmas Braggin’ Rights shootout — may not be so difficult this year.

Missourians, who trailed off in support last season, are looking askance at it. They fear a whoopin’, and they’ve become football-oriented with coach Gary Pinkel producing 12-2 and 11-3 seasons in the SEC.

The Tigers have had five head basketball coaches and two interim fill-ins in the last 10 years, and Kim Anderson got off to a shaky 9-23 start last season. That’s the fewest wins since before Norm Stewart took charge in 1967-68.

Recruiting of high school talent slipped recently due to an emphasis on transfers. And now, in a chilling development, the team’s two young anchors have decided to leave. Johnathan Williams III, who bagged 15 points and eight rebounds against Illinois — a 62-59 UI win on Rayvonte Rice’s trey — left earlier with a restriction that he not attend another SEC school or a future opponent. Montaque Gill-Caesar, who was the team’s most touted freshman when he arrived a year ago, has also elected to transfer.

Where do the Tigers go from here? When they ended a 13-game losing streak against visiting Florida Feb. 24, the school announced ticket sales of 7,631. That means sold, not necessarily in seats. The final home game listed attendance as N/A … which might lead a person to think they were too embarrassed to reveal it.

Record speaks for itself

Volleyball at Illinois is a destination sport.

Following a firm foundation built by Mike Hebert and Don Harden, coach Kevin Hambly recruits at the highest level, contends for championships in a powerhouse conference, and has finished as high as NCAA runner-up (2011).

With no men’s volleyball here — nor swimming and soccer — those women’s teams don’t face a judgmental comparison in-house. But in every case where men and women compete in the same UI sport, the male teams have performed more favorably against the competition.

It isn’t close in tennis, golf, basketball, track, cross-country and baseball-softball. The men are current owners of four Big Ten titles in those sports, the women none.

Based on 2015 results, you can make an argument in gymnastics — both finished runner-up in the Big Ten and both barely missed the NCAA finals — but the male gymnasts have been clearly superior over time.

The record speaks for itself. Form your own conclusions.

Tate’s tidbits

• Since UI students are contributing $50 per year (over 30 years) toward the State Farm Center’s renovation, that should give them a voice in matters relating to the building. So, hopefully, the student senate will be taken seriously if it passes a proposed resolution to name the court after former coach Lou Henson. Or better yet, perhaps athletic director Mike Thomas and the UI administration will beat them to the punch. This needs to be done.

• According to rivals.com, Illinois has landed four four-star football prospects in five years. Caleb Day and the departed Aaron Bailey arrived in 2013 and two more are on campus this summer, Gabe Megginson and Ke’Shawn Vaughn. In that same period, Ohio State attracted 68 four-stars and six five-stars, and has another 12 four-stars and one five-star committed for next year. A slight advantage, would you say?

• A Golfweek query sent to 150 college golf coaches found Illinois’ Mike Small chosen by his peers as No. 1 over Alabama’s Jay Seawell and Georgia Tech’s Bruce Heppler. Of 102 cast, Small received 49 first-place votes. In compiling results from the last six NCAA tournaments, Small’s Illini came in No. 1 and ahead of all those warm-weather schools.

• Not to discount the exceptional talent of Ohio State basketball guard D’Angelo Russell (19.3 points, 5.0 assists) but you know the NBA have evolved into a “guard league” when the Lakers choose him ahead of 6-11 Jahlil Okafor. Okafor made two baskets out of every three attempts (.664) as a Duke freshman.